


Drawing a Circle

by silver_drip



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Child Murder, Dark, Loki's Kids, Mythological Murder, Mythology - Freeform, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-03-02
Packaged: 2018-09-27 22:14:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10053767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silver_drip/pseuds/silver_drip
Summary: Loki's past is not a happy one. The power of an infinity gem sets things right.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RenneMichaels](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenneMichaels/gifts), [Temul](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Temul/gifts), [babyblueglasses](https://archiveofourown.org/users/babyblueglasses/gifts).



> Trigger Warning: Death and Abandonment of Children

* * *

All it took was finding an infinity gem for Loki’s bleak world to suddenly turn around.

His family… His true family.

His false family had chipped away at his heart for centuries and then shattered the last of it.

But now was different.

He had the time gem.

So many possibilities…

Yet, he knew that he couldn’t truly change the past. If he did, then his present could become even more unfavorable.

*

Sleipnir was Loki’s first child and the only one he’d carried. Odin had called Loki a disgrace and forced Sleipnir to be his steed and slave.

Hel, Jormungand, and Fenrir had been born while Loki was in self-exile. Their mother, Angrboda, had been a Jotun. He didn’t know that until after he had ‘died’ on Svartalfheim.

That was probably just another reason why Odin had taken them from Loki.

When Hel could barely walk or speak Odin sent her to Helheim.

Jormungand was banished to Asgard before he even hatched—Loki wasn’t even sure of Jormungand’s gender. He didn’t know if his child would look like an animal or an Aesir—Or if they even survived the Bifrost.

Fenrir’s fate was much clearer.

Odin and Tyr had stolen Fenrir in the night. When Loki woke, he learned that they had taken Fenrir and chained him up—alone and in the dark.

Fenrir took Tyr’s hand in the struggle, but that did nothing to lessen Loki’s pain.

He had Narfi and Vali with his wife Sigyn.

This memory was his strongest.

They looked and acted like Aesir—They were citizens of Asgard!

But that didn’t matter to Loki’s false family and the other Aesir.

They had said it was Loki’s fault that his sons were killed. The Aesir said that he was being ‘quarrelsome’ and ‘uncivil’.

Instead of taking their anger out on Loki, which tended to happen regardless of Loki’s provocations, they turned their attention on his children.

Loki didn’t know how many Aesir were involved, but he knew Thor led the mob with Odin’s support.

Loki had tried to stop them—

Someone turned Vali into a wolf—a cruel reminder of Fenrir.

Vali’s muzzle was frothing and his eyes were glazed. His mind had been overwhelmed by an animal instinct he hadn’t been born with—

And Thor had thrown Narfi right at Vali.

The sound of flesh and bones being torn apart broke through the noise of the cheering.

Then the whistling of metal through air.

Gungnir, Odin’s spear.

It went straight through Vali’s eye and out the back of his skull.

Loki had stood motionlessly as the crowd dissipated.

It was only when crows started to feast on his sons, that Loki acted.

He sent his daggers flying, killing the crows.

Loki returned Vali to his natural form and gathered his sons into his arms.

He had built them a pyre and gave them a proper funeral.

When he returned to the palace, everyone was acting as if nothing had happened and Sigyn was gone.  

*

Odin and Frigga had two sons, two _real_ sons.

There had always been a rumor of a son that was born before Thor.

A son to follow in Odin’s footsteps. A son Asgard would be proud of.

Loki had first learned about him while he’d been searching through Frigga’s papers for a spell. He had been so young and had thought his mother was writing a story.

Her painful slap, the first and only one she’d ever given him, had knocked Loki into the wall.

Frigga had both scolded and apologized to him.

Loki wouldn’t even have remembered what he’d read if Frigga hadn’t hit him. He’d been looking for a spell, not a story.

The name stuck with him, though.

Baldr.

His hair shined brighter than Thor’s. His eyes were the color of the midday sky. Before he was knee high he had tackled a guard to the floor.

He was everything Odin could want in a son.

And then he disappeared.

*

Bragi was Odin’s bastard.

A child begotten by a milkmaid while Odin was still a prince.

Bragi could sing before he could speak.

At every feast Bargi would create music that enticed the Aesir.

King Burr, Odin’s father, had favored little Bragi and thus favored Odin.

Bargi’s body was found in the great hall of the palace.

It was clear that Vili and Ve, Odin’s brothers, had killed the young boy.

Odin flew into a righteous rage and slaughtered his brothers.

When King Burr tried to stop him, Odin killed him too.

*

As far as Loki could tell, the worst thing that had ever happened to Tyr was that Fenrir had bitten off his hand.

Tyr had won glory while fighting in the war against Jotunheim.

He became Odin’s second in command when the war was over.

With the loss of his sword hand his glory started to diminish.

When Thor was crowned king, Tyr was kept as an advisor.

He begged to be put into battle, but Thor brushed him aside, saying he was too old.

Tyr lusted for a noble death to take him to Valhalla.

*

Thor never married Jane.

After dawdling about on Midgard with his mortals, he went back to Asgard.

He married Sif.

Before Thor was crowned they had a baby girl, Thrud.

She died suddenly and without a known cause.

It nearly broke up their marriage.

They later on had two more children, both boys.

Modi and Magni died the same night.

*

Vanaheim, a beautiful house, hidden by magic and geography.

Loki was leaning against a tree as he read in the summer light.

Sleipnir’s head was resting on Loki’s lap.

Hel was seated beside them, slowly going through her own book. Every so often she’d ask Loki about a word she didn’t understand. Loki happily explained them to her.

Jormungand, Loki’s beautiful little serpent, was curled up on a slab of rock, sunbathing.

Vali and Narfi were riding on Fenrir’s back.

The twins were shrieking happily and Fenrir grumbled at them.

They were all together, a family.

Loki was content.

Well, nearly content.

*

Loki appeared beside Odin’s deathbed.

“The crown suits you well, Thor,” Loki said.

Thor jumped in his seat. He stared at Loki in amazement.

“Brother! It has been a lifetime!” Thor grabbed Odin’s hand. “Father, Loki has come to take you to Valhalla!” Odin’s gaze drifted over to Loki, his one eye widening.

Loki held back his sneer.

“I have come to tell a story.” Loki looked down at Odin. “A very interesting story. There was a warrior, noble and strong. He had a son that was full of music. This child died at the hands of his uncles, or at least that is what the warrior believed. The warrior killed his brothers and father in a rage, but the child was alright.” Loki could see the confusion on Odin’s face, but did not pause to explain. “The warrior had another son, but this one disappeared.

“He did not know that both had been stolen by a Jotun. Nor did he know that he would one day see them again.”

“Brother, what are y—”

“Hush, now, Thor. It is rude to interrupt a story,” Loki chided him. Thor pouted, but nodded. Loki smiled at him then took Odin’s free hand. “As it would happen, he came across his second son first. The warrior did not recognize him because the Jotun had transform him into a horse—A horse that was so grand that the warrior decided to make him his stead. When, after serving him well, the horse broke one of its legs, the warrior killed it.” Odin squeezed Loki’s hand with all his might—a pathetic grasp weaker than that of a baby’s. “But that is only the first part!

“Let’s not forget about the musical son. When the warrior saw him again the boy was in the form of an egg. The warrior saw this egg and assumed it had come from the Jotun. In truth it had, but not in the way he suspected. The warrior cast the egg out, sending it to a place where no one would ever hear his son sing again.” Loki looked at Thor. “What do you think so far?”

The wrinkles around Thor’s eyes became deeper.

“It is a tragedy.” Thor nodded solemnly.

“Indeed, quite the cruel fate.” Loki turned his attention back to Odin. “The warrior had a friend, a trusted advisor. The advisor had fought by the warrior’s side for countless years. The pair had much in common, chiefmost the desire to have a noble end and enter Valhalla as warriors. To this end, he followed every command of the warrior. One day, this advisor was sent on a mission to chain a great beast. He did not know that the one he was truly chaining was his future-self.

“Words did not come easily to beasts though, so when his future tried to speak to his past, flesh was exchanged instead of words. His past-self barred him from Valhalla by putting the beast in chains that would only break when Ragnarok began.”

“Another tragedy.” Thor nodded again, pretending to be wise. Loki ignored him.

“The warrior had a third son, one that grew up in his household. The third son was raised to follow blindly. When the warrior did cruel things, he did not speak up to help the defenseless. The third son said nothing as the warrior banished a little girl to Helheim. A little girl that was his niece.” Realization started dawning on Thor’s face. “What he didn’t know is that the sneaky Jotun had gone back in time and switched that little girl with Thrud. Thor did not know it was his daughter so he said nothing to stop his father.

“Thor had more than one child. He had a pair of sons, Modi and Magni, only a decade separating them in age. Two little boys with so much life in front of them—But they were pulled into the past. The Jotun put them in the form of two other little boys, Narfi and Vali.

“These two boys were frightened. In their new forms, they could not recognize each other. Everyone was shouting at them and pushing them. But then!” Loki grinned maliciously, “Magni saw his father, the strong and noble Thor, but before he could call out to him a Jotun turned Magni into a wolf. Thor laughed in delight and grabbed Modi and threw him at the wolf, laughing and laughing and laughing as his son was torn apart. Laughing, even as his other son was skewered through the head.”

There was a long silence as what Loki said sunk in.

“Thor,” Loki said as he faded away, “are you still laughing?”


End file.
